After intense and engaged debates, the deputies voted on Thursday June 6, by 88 votes to 50, for the adoption of article 5 of the bill relating to the end of life, which aims to define and establish assistance to die in France. According to the initial text, assistance in dying consists of “to authorize and support a person who has expressed a request to use a lethal substance”in order to “that she administers it to herself or, when she is not physically able to do so, has it administered by a doctor, a nurse or an adult whom she designates and who comes forward to do so ».
However, the deputies removed in article 5 the possibility for a loved one to administer the lethal substance. A decision contrary to the advice of the government.
Health Minister Catherine Vautrin said what was “important is that the text becomes effective and that the person who requested to benefit [de l’aide à mourir] can benefit from it ».
After deciding on the conditions of application, the deputies debated in the wake of article 6, the most sensitive, on the ” Access conditions “ strict rules on assisted dying. The government would like to return to the initial version of its bill which limits this act to adult patients whose “vital prognosis” is engaged “short or medium term” and who manifest it “will in a free and enlightened manner”.
In committee, the deputies voted for it to concern more widely people suffering from a condition “serious and incurable in advanced or terminal phase” and some are pushing to allow relatives to exercise advance directives when a patient is no longer able to express their wishes.